Penguin Train Brings Finest News

• There was a major shakeup at Penguin's adult imprints Tuesday, which feature some of my favorites like Viking and Riverhead. Nearly every Penguin imprint was affected, from the aforementioned divisions to Dutton and Putnam, all of which make regular appearances on the bestseller lists. Even smaller ones like Avery, which focuses on health-related books, were impacted. There were three key headliner changes, but arguably the one most visible to the average reader is the late-summer closure of Gotham Books and Hudson Street Press.

Any change at the behemoth known as Penguin Random House impacts bookstores by virtue of that company being the biggest publisher by far with dozens of divisions, or imprints. The problem with having this many imprints is that eventually, there will be overlap and that's what led to the closure of Gotham and Hudson Street. For example, I've always found Viking to have a wide variety of titles. It manages to publish nonfiction history like The Boys in the Boat to fiction like Mo Yan's controversial Frog and throws in some critical thinking books from the likes of Sir Ken Robinson along the way. With that wide of range, there's bound to be some overlap with other Penguin imprints.

• On Friday, I wrote about three trends for 2015 films based on books. Naturally, dates and movies were shuffled after that post's publication. Instead of The Jungle Book coming Oct. 9, Disney has opted to delay that to April 2016 and bump up its adaptation of the Michael J. Tougias book The Finest Hours, the true story of the Coast Guard's rescue of two oil tankers during a 1952 Nor'easter storm. The film stars Chris Pine (Star Trek, Into the Woods), Casey Affleck (Interstellar, Oceans trilogy) and Eric Bana (Lone Survivor, Hulk). So essentially, they swapped one trend of public domain stories for another in survival stories. Frankly, I don't think it's a bad trade. I had already planned to cover The Finest Hours when it was set for release. When the book was published by Scribner in 2009, it received generally favorable reviews and it currently has a 3.91 on Goodreads.

• In other book film news, the adaptation of Paula Hawkins' debut novel The Girl on the Train is gaining more traction at DreamWorks. Erin Cressida Wilson is set to turn in a script soon. The story is about a train commuter with an unreliable memory becoming entangled in a murder investigation. Hawkins' novel is taking the literary world by storm and has been flagged as a major bestseller of 2015. This one, along with Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale, which is set for publication next month, have been heavily hyped for months. Hawkins' novel was published this week by Riverhead. I'm about three hours into the audiobook and the novel is definitely dark and twisty while the comparisons to Hitchcock are accurate.

• Speaking of Hitchcock and trains, Gone Girl writer and screenwriter Gillian Flynn is re-teaming with star Ben Affleck and director David Fincher for a remake of the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Strangers on a Train. No word yet on a release date.

The Best Books of 2014

2014 was a great year of reading and as thousands of reviewers put out their best-of lists, I realized I had read 30+ books this year. There was no way I'd put every single one in, so I chopped the list in half. True to my goal to split time between both fiction and nonfiction, the list is about as close to 50/50 as you can get with a top-15 list. Within these fifteen standouts, there's a wide range of genres from sci-fi and romance to memoirs and history.

While most of my reading in 2014 was backlist titles, there were a few new books sprinkled in and a couple of books that just barely made it in before the year closed. Without further a due, here are the top 15 books I read in 2014...

15) Travels with Casey by Benoit Denizet-Lewis - 3.5 stars. A great travelogue about dog care in America, both at its admirable best and heart-breaking worst.

14) The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - 3.5 stars. A wonderfully descriptive book about magicians pitted against each other that helped spark my current audiobook craze, thanks to Jim Dale's terrific narration.

13) As You Wish by Cary Elwes - 4 stars. A memoir of the making of the classic film The Princess Bride, the audiobook features commentary spoken by most of the cast, which creates a much more engaging read.

12) The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak - 4 stars. I bought this for my niece and nephew for Christmas and breezed through it as I was trying to figure out that all-important question "Would they like it?" Novak's book challenges the assumption that children's books have to have pictures to be entertaining and encourages interaction between children and their parents.

11) Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo - 4 stars. Gut-wrenching tale of life in a Mumbai slum that served as a powerful reminder of how many in the world live in abject poverty and an unquenched desire to better their situation.

10) A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson - 4 stars. One of the funnier books I read in 2014, this one is considered a classic in the travel genre and it lived up to that reputation.

9) Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan - 4 stars. The quirkiest book I read and I mean that as a compliment. It's themes of digital information vs. old-fashioned printing are timely and make for a wonderful tale.

8) The Last Gunfight by Jeff Guinn - 4 stars. After watching the early 1990's film Tombstone, I read this definitive history of that famous shootout and it didn't disappoint.

7) The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion - 4 stars. A genetics professor with autism seeks to find love in a story that says everyone wants to find their soulmate — even the socially peculiar ones.

6) Fantasy Life by Matthew Berry - 4 stars. The funniest book I read last year. There are fantasy sports team owners (me), fanatics, professionals and then there's the crazies in Fantasy Life.

5) Playing the Enemy by John Carlin - 4 stars. One of the most informative and impactful books I read in 2014. The story of South Africa's improbable 1995 World Cup victory that inspired the 2009 film Invictus isn't just a story of sports transcending the playing field — it's a story of a country healing.

4) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon - 4 stars. I avoided this critically-lauded book for years because of fears it wouldn't portray autism and the struggles of those affected by it well. Shame on me for waiting so long.

3) Ready Player One by Ernest Cline - 4 stars. Simply put, the most fun I had reading last year. The story of Wade Watts' quest to solve the OASIS scavenger hunt is a fun ride chock full of 1980's references and heart.

2) The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown - 5 stars. A wonderful true story about the University of Washington rowing team and its journey to the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Brown tells the story with zeal and care and as the book progressed, the more I was cheering on the team. In any other year, this would have been No. 1.

1) Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand - 5 stars. After all the hype, I finally picked this book up in March and it became the pace-setter for the year. The life story of Louis Zamperini is meticulously told and delivered with powerful punch after punch. The ripples from this one are still being felt.

Review: The Boys in the Boat

Maybe it's from my youth and watching the likes of "The Mighty Ducks" and "Remember the Titans," but I've always loved an underdog story. Whether its people overcoming personal obstacles or rallying to become the champion when no one expected them to win, I love watching people triumph. In the case of Daniel James Brown's The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, originally published last year by Viking but was just released on paperback this summer by Penguin, the reader gets the best of both worlds in an excellent, page-turning read.

The book tells the story of the 1936 University of Washington rowing, or crew, team as they beat the rival University of California team and went on to represent the U.S. in the Berlin Olympics. Brown profiles every member of the team, especially Joe Rantz, who survived a rough childhood to get to college. Every member of the crew faced the hardships of the Great Depression, growing up in Northwestern logging camps, dairy farms and mining towns. Brown paints each setting, whether its the shell house where the crew's boat is stored or the Olympic race course, with painstaking detail akin to Laura Hillenbrand's outstanding Unbroken and Seabiscuit.

Initially, there are some personality clashes as people vie for spots on the crew, not to mention the inner rivalries between the class levels. But as the team gels together, the pace of the book quickens and I found myself rooting for the team more and more. I would sit in bed reading into the late night hours audibly cheering for the crew. Even the side characters like coach Al Ulbrickson, boat designer George Pocock and the sports journalists that follow the team, especially Seattle sports icon Royal Brougham, are all fully fleshed out.

As the story shifts to Europe, the pace picks up and Brown explains beautifully how Hitler wanted the Games to be, particularly involving filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, as well as how the team interacted with other Olympians. I have seldom watched an Olympic crew race on television, but I have a better understanding of the sport, both in terms of the strength and stamina needed and the strategy involved. I was absolutely riveted in the last race.

Here is the trailer for the book:

I absolutely loved this book and it is one of the top 3 books I've read this year. When I write feature stories, it's books like this that I aim for as an example of feature writing at its best. The book celebrates the triumph of what people can do when they work together as a singular unit and achieve great things. I try to be judicious in handing out 5-star ratings, but The Boys in the Boat is a book I'm glad I own in hardcover and will remain on my shelf for years to come. Rating 5/5 stars

Apparently, there is a film adaptation in the works. In 2011, more than two years prior to publication, The Weinstein Company purchased the film rights to the novel. The company distributed and produced such Oscar fare as "Silver Linings Playbook," "The Artist," and "The King's Speech." At the time, it was announced that"Thor" director Kenneth Branagh was attached to direct. However, there has been little to no new developments since the initial announcement.

Below, Brown further explains how he came to write the book at a Q&A session inside Washington D.C. literary landmark Politics and Prose: